Page 352 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Australia
P. 352
350 SOUTH A USTR ALIA
Exploring Adelaide P Adelaide Town Hall
128 King William St.
Adelaide, a city of great charm with an unhurried way of life, Tel (08) 8203 7515. Open Mon–Fri.
is easily explored on foot. Well planned on a grid pattern, it Closed public hols. 7
∑ adelaidetownhall.com.au
is bordered by wide terraces and parkland. Within the city are
a number of garden squares and gracious stone buildings. When Adelaide Town Hall,
designed in Italianate style
However, while Adelaide values its past, it is very much a by Edmund Wright, was built
modern city. The balmy climate and excellent local food in 1866, it became the most
and wine have given rise to an abundance of streetside significant structure on King
restaurants and cafés. With its acclaimed Adelaide Festival William Street. It was not
(see p45), the city prides itself on being an important bastion long before it took over as
the city’s premier venue for
of traditional arts and culture.
concerts and civic receptions,
and it is still used as such
today. Notable features include
= Central Market Onkaparinga. Government its grand staircase and decor
Gouger St. Tel (08) 8203 7494. buildings were erected around ative ceiling.
Open Tue–Sat (limited stalls on Wed). much of the square during
Closed public hols. 7 colonial days and many of these
Just west of Victoria Square, buildings still stand as
between Gouger and Grote reminders of a bygone age.
streets, Adelaide Central Market On the north side of Victoria
has provided a profusion of Square stands the General Post
tastes and aromas in the city Office, an impressive building
for more than 140 years. The with an ornate main hall and a
changing ethnic pattern of clock tower. Opened in 1872, it
Adelaide society is reflected in was hailed by English novelist
the diversity of produce avail Anthony Trollope as the
able today. Asian shops now sit “grandest edifice in the town”.
beside older Europeanstyle On the corner of Wakefield
butchers and delicatessens, and Street, to the east of Victoria
part of the area has become Square, stands St Francis Xavier Detail of the ornate front parapet of
Adelaide’s own little Chinatown. Catholic Cathedral. The original Edmund Wright House
Around the market are dozens cathedral, dedicated in 1858,
of restaurants and cafés. was a simpler building and P Edmund Wright House
plans for expansion were 59 King William St. 7
P Victoria Square hampered by the lack of rich Edmund Wright House,
King William & Franklin sts. Catholics in the state. The originally built for the Bank of
Victoria Square lies at the cathedral was only completed South Australia in 1878, was
geographic heart of the city. At in 1996, when the spire was set to be demolished in 1971.
the southern end of the square finally added. However, a general outcry
stands a fountain designed by To the south of the square is led to its public purchase
sculptor John Dowie in 1968. Adelaide’s legal centre and the and subsequent restoration.
Its theme is the three rivers from Magistrates Court. The Supreme The building was renamed
which Adelaide draws its water: Court, built in the 1860s, has a after its main architect,
the Torrens, the Murray and the Palladian façade. Edmund Wright. The skill and
workmanship displayed in
the finely proportioned and
detailed façade is also evident
in the beautiful interior. Today
the building is the Migrant
Resource Centre, and it offers
only limited access to the
general public.
Further along King William
Street, at the corner of North
Terrace, stands one of
Adelaide’s finest statues, the
South African War Memorial. It
shows a “spirited horse and his
stalwart rider” and stands in
memory of those who lost their
Victoria Square in the centre of Adelaide lives in the Boer War.
For hotels and restaurants in this area see p491 and pp522–3
